Pilot Error Crash (Inspire 2)

Drone_Video · Jul 30, 2018

I had some very bad luck today and crashed my Inspire 2, and its so my fault, not a pleasant experience at all - almost feel like I need a support group - thus my posting today.

But I did learn something, don't mix up the stick controls and I should have left the max decent rate at 4 m/s and not changed it to 9 m/s.

I made a quick video with the recovered SD card video, and the last few seconds of the cached video file of the doomed flight. I looked over the log files but even before I did I knew what happened. Such a crappy feeling to know that one second (approx.) of holding down the wrong stick caused its demise.

If you want to see how it all went down, feel free to watch the video. Please keep in mind I take full responsibility for the damages, there was no blame on the gear, despite this being a test flight for the latest firmware (nothing to do with the cause of the crash).

Despite the significant impact the craft seems to have help up really well, hopefully the repairs are not to complex.

slim.slamma · Jul 30, 2018

When I’m under 50 feet I try to remember to switch from 20 mph descent to 4 mph. I get lazy sometimes.
This clip definitely stained my brain.

2nd crash I’ve came across from max descent speed.

nabarbieri · Jul 30, 2018

Ouch, sorry that happened. Hopefully the fix won’t be too hard.

Nik

Drone_Video · Jul 31, 2018

Thanks for the support
I will find out shortly what it will cost and it it makes sense to use the DJI care refresh. I’m sure I will use it for the camera but may just pay the repair on the I2 itself as damage on it doesn’t look too bad.

We have a local DJI 3rd party Center here but they are small and the repair guy is out until Wednesday. Fingers crossed it’s not a bent frame or broken circuit board inside

slim.slamma · Jul 31, 2018

Drone_Video said:
Thanks for the support
I will find out shortly what it will cost and it it makes sense to use the DJI care refresh. I’m sure I will use it for the camera but may just pay the repair on the I2 itself as damage on it doesn’t look too bad.

We have a local DJI 3rd party Center here but they are small and the repair guy is out until Wednesday. Fingers crossed it’s not a bent frame or broken circuit board inside

You’ll be back up and flying soon!

Steve@AerialImagesPro · Jul 31, 2018

That sucks. I feel your pain. I've experienced that with MANY R/C aircraft prior to drones. I eventually got over the basic mistakes, but when you graduate into Aerobatics and are performing a low level maneuver and make a mistake, there goes your $500 non-repairable plane (or heli). That's part of why I don't fly automated stuff, I know how bad things can go and how fast they can go bad..

If you're handy at all, it's not really that hard to rebuild these things. It's just a bunch of parts that are put together, there's no 'crafting' of any kind so if you take it apart, you can order any and all parts to replace yourself. If you're not handy though, it does get pretty complicated. But I would guess the cost would be half of what you'd pay DJI to repair.

Steve@AerialImagesPro · Jul 31, 2018

regarding descent rate, I'm not sure how the I2 is, but you have to be very careful with descent rate (if you're coming straight down) as you're descending into your own prop wash which can affect lift significantly. I always keep my Inspire moving forward/backward/left/right while descending to stay out of my prop wash.

Drone_Video · Jul 31, 2018

Steve@AerialImagesPro said:
That sucks. I feel your pain. I've experienced that with MANY R/C aircraft prior to drones. I eventually got over the basic mistakes, but when you graduate into Aerobatics and are performing a low level maneuver and make a mistake, there goes your $500 non-repairable plane (or heli). That's part of why I don't fly automated stuff, I know how bad things can go and how fast they can go bad..

If you're handy at all, it's not really that hard to rebuild these things. It's just a bunch of parts that are put together, there's no 'crafting' of any kind so if you take it apart, you can order any and all parts to replace yourself. If you're not handy though, it does get pretty complicated. But I would guess the cost would be half of what you'd pay DJI to repair.

Thanks for the advice. I flew nitro hell before and I am use to landing it at cost of 200$ each time (aka a crash). So I know what you mean, learning to fly that was expensive but in small amounts at a time. These drones crash seldom but very expensive when it does happen.

My biggest issue is time. I fly for fun, and with three kids and a job with significant travel and late days I tend to only fly one or twice a month. I was thinking of sending it back to DJI and it will be back k. My hands before I can fly again anyways. So more about the time than the skill.

I think this damage is minor just looks like a few decently easy parts to get at. I was going to see what the local shop says and costs before I decide if I can tackle it.

The camera on the other hand I’m sure is beyond my ability. It could’ve used for parts but if I use my DJI care they will want it back. I was thinking of upgrading to to X5S and may look for a used one if someone updated to an x7s. But I’m actually happy with the 4s so a used one of those may be okay for me too at this point.

I have a free hour Wednesday to drive to the DJI repair place here and hopefully they can make this an easy decision for me

Thank you for your support.

Drone_Video · Jul 31, 2018

slim.slamma said:
You’ll be back up and flying soon!

Thanks for the support. I hope so. I enjoy flying these and generally very limited free time so getting back up in the air quick would be really nice

Not to mention I have some people coming in from Halifax that I meet on YouTube and we were planning to together here in a few weeks. So getting back up with DK would be really nice. I have a Mavic air and pro also but the Inspire is my pride and joy. Love this platform! ( if I don’t have to carry it up a side of a cliff anyways!)

jakejhonson44 · Aug 1, 2018

Drone_Video said:
I had some very bad luck today and crashed my Inspire 2, and its so my fault, not a pleasant experience at all - almost feel like I need a support group - thus my posting today.

But I did learn something, don't mix up the stick controls and I should have left the max decent rate at 4 m/s and not changed it to 9 m/s.

I made a quick video with the recovered SD card video, and the last few seconds of the cached video file of the doomed flight. I looked over the log files but even before I did I knew what happened. Such a crappy feeling to know that one second (approx.) of holding down the wrong stick caused its demise.

If you want to see how it all went down, feel free to watch the video. Please keep in mind I take full responsibility for the damages, there was no blame on the gear, despite this being a test flight for the latest firmware (nothing to do with the cause of the crash).

Despite the significant impact the craft seems to have help up really well, hopefully the repairs are not to complex.

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Is your drone severely damaged after the crash?

Drone_Video · Aug 1, 2018

jakejhonson44 said:
Is your drone severely damaged after the crash?

In the video last min or so of the 2 min video I have a decent close up of the crafts condition

The camera looks bad as the arm is. Token but it’s not torn apart to bad

The inspire itself looks like the camera Vibration plate broke but I didn’t Ben the air frame. Also broke a gear or something in the arm but not he arm or props even.

Looks to me like h back corner bottom took the impact mostly with the ground as it was pitched up “braking” from my forward motion also

So it doesn’t look too bad actually.

The video itself may show you better if you want to see it for yourself.

jakejhonson44 · Aug 2, 2018

Drone_Video said:
In the video last min or so of the 2 min video I have a decent close up of the crafts condition

The camera looks bad as the arm is. Token but it’s not torn apart to bad

The inspire itself looks like the camera Vibration plate broke but I didn’t Ben the air frame. Also broke a gear or something in the arm but not he arm or props even.

Looks to me like h back corner bottom took the impact mostly with the ground as it was pitched up “braking” from my forward motion also

So it doesn’t look too bad actually.

The video itself may show you better if you want to see it for yourself.

Ouch there are some damages but not too bad not too broke

Drone_Video · Aug 2, 2018

jakejhonson44 said:
Ouch there are some damages but not too bad not too broke

Thanks for the support.

I managed to get it to the local repair shop and they can fix it for 600 cad they think. Should be done in a week to 10 days. They have the replace one arm and check over the other arms make sure they are not broken.

The camera they don’t even try to fix just have get it replaced.

Overall not that bad considering!

jakejhonson44 · Aug 3, 2018

Drone_Video said:
Thanks for the support.

I managed to get it to the local repair shop and they can fix it for 600 cad they think. Should be done in a week to 10 days. They have the replace one arm and check over the other arms make sure they are not broken.

The camera they don’t even try to fix just have get it replaced.

Overall not that bad considering!

Not bad actually just replace and buy a new camera for it

Drone_Video · Aug 3, 2018

jakejhonson44 said:
Not bad actually just replace and buy a new camera for it

Yeah. I will find out if there was any hidden damage further along the repair when they open it. But it powered up and FPV camera was transmitting clear picture with full movement. Frame looked perfect. Motors powered with no errors showing other then encoder error because the camera was not attached.

So fingers crossed.

Started the process for the DJI care refresh plus exchange for the camera. They sent the first response within 12 hours and I answered there questions and sent a response late last night. So hopefully today I get the approval to swap out the camera too and it will arrive before the Inpsire repair is done.

So far pretty smooth.

Stanley3ipkiss · Aug 4, 2018

Hey, at least nobody was hurt.... only the wallet. Fingers crossed for you...

Drone_Video · Aug 4, 2018

Stanley3ipkiss said:
Hey, at least nobody was hurt.... only the wallet. Fingers crossed for you...

Injury would have not been good! Wallets can be replace!

Thank you for the support.

jakejhonson44 · Aug 5, 2018

Drone_Video said:
Yeah. I will find out if there was any hidden damage further along the repair when they open it. But it powered up and FPV camera was transmitting clear picture with full movement. Frame looked perfect. Motors powered with no errors showing other then encoder error because the camera was not attached.

So fingers crossed.

Started the process for the DJI care refresh plus exchange for the camera. They sent the first response within 12 hours and I answered there questions and sent a response late last night. So hopefully today I get the approval to swap out the camera too and it will arrive before the Inpsire repair is done.

So far pretty smooth.

Pretty good by the way goodluck to your next flights